Mobile haul vehicles, such as mining trucks and articulated haul trucks, have historically been used to transport ore between different locations at a worksite. For example, the vehicles can be loaded with ore at a first location by an excavation machine (e.g., a rope shovel, a hydraulic shovel, etc.), and transport the ore to a processor (e.g., to a central crusher) at a second location. After processing, the crushed ore is then reloaded onto the mobile haul vehicles and transported to a third location (e.g., to waiting rail cars, to a final use destination, or to a port for loading onto a cargo ship). This method of transporting ore, while useful in some situations, can also require a large crew of skilled operators, a significant amount of fuel, well-maintained roadways, traffic control features, and other costly resources. Traditional ore transportation can also produce a significant amount of noise and air pollution.
Recently, a system of local crushers and conveyors have begun replacing mobile haul vehicles and central crushers at some worksites. These systems are known as In-Pit-Crushing-and-Conveying systems (a.k.a., IPCCs). At worksites employing an IPCC, the excavation machine dumps its material load into a nearby hopper, and the material is funneled down into a local crusher. Crushed material is then deposited by the local crusher onto a proximal end of a primary conveyor belt. The material is transported to a distal end of the primary conveyor belt, where it falls onto a secondary conveyor belt, into a rail car, into a ship, or into or onto another receptacle. In some embodiments, the hopper, crusher, and primary conveyor belt are integral and mobile, such that the location of the hopper and crusher can be continuously adjusted at the dump location for convenient loading by the excavation machine and the distal end of the primary conveyor belt can be strategically positioned over the receptacle.
In most instances, placement of the IPCC is manually controlled, which can be prone to error. For example, if the hopper is not accurately placed on a swing radius of the excavation machine's bucket, the material dumped from the bucket may not land completely inside the hopper. In addition, it may be difficult to determine when the machine's bucket is precisely aligned over the hopper at a desired height, even if the hopper is properly positioned on the swing radius of the excavation machine. Improper hopper positioning and/or misalignment can result in delay, productivity loss, cleanup cost, and equipment damage.
One attempt to address the above-identified issues is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,768,579 of Taylor et al. that issued on Jul. 1, 2014 (“the '579 patent”). In particular, the '579 patent discloses a system for automating a swing-to-hopper motion of a rope shovel. The system includes a controller that receives position data from sensors for a dipper and for a hopper where materials are to be dumped from the dipper. The controller then calculates an ideal path for the dipper to travel to be positioned above the hopper and dump its contents. The controller outputs operator feedback to assist the operator in traveling along the ideal path to the hopper, restricts dipper motion such that the operator is not able to deviate beyond certain limits of the ideal path, and/or automatically controls the movement of the dipper to reach the hopper.
Although the system of the '579 patent may help an operator to follow an ideal path from a dig location to a dump location, the system may be limited. In particular, the system may do little to help establish the dump location or to avoid collision of the dipper with a poorly positioned dump location. Further, the operator feedback may be difficult to interpret.
The excavation system of the present disclosure is directed towards overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.